In some networking environments, communication networks may be formed when multiple interoperable nodes communicating over a shared medium detect the existence of other nodes. One example of such a network is a network that operates in accordance to the Media over Coax Alliance (“MoCA”) MAC/PHY Specification v. 1.0. In this network, nodes may function as “clients” or “slave” nodes, or as “master”/“network controller”/“network coordinator” (“NC”) nodes. A network will typically have a single NC node and any number of client nodes, and the NC node may transmit beacons and other control information to manage the network.
In some networks, such as an MoCA network or an Ethernet-based network, digital data is transmitted in the form of a packet. However, overhead information is associated with each packet transmitted through the network. The overhead information, including identifiers, source and destination addresses, error control fields, etc., is added to the user data and reduces the availability of network bandwidth for user data.